At present, reports on the pollen morphology of the genus Desmodium Desv. in China are not systematic and are only limited to a few species in some areas. For finding evidences to support taxonomic revisions and systematic relationships of the genus Desmodium Desv. in China, we examined the pollen grains of Desmodium Desv. species in China. The pollen grains of 17 species belonging to 7 sections and 3 subgenus of the genus Desmodium Desv. in China were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the pollen grains of the genus Desmodium Desv. are tricolpate monads, which are spheroidal, subprolate, or prolate with reticulate or rugulate exine sculptures. According to the exine sculptures, samples were classified into 7 groups. Moreover, four quantitative pollen morphology data, which are polar axis length (P), colpus length/polar axis length (C/P), colpus length/central colpus width, polar axis length/equatorial axis length (P/E), and coding exine sculptures, were used for cluster analysis. In addition, 4 groups were obtained using cluster analysis, some of which were consistent with morphological classification. Coincidentally, some of the taxonomic groups were also consistent with the morphological classification groups. Therefore, palynological traits of the genus Desmodium Desv. can provide useful information on classification.